Quick, what’s the largest crop in America? You guessed it, our lawns. Almost every patch of proud blades requires some machine to keep it trim, and given a recent publication of controversial but alarming statistics on the pollution that our gas-powered beautification devices puts out, we decided to get an electric mower. Enter the Sunlawn EM-2. A rotary–blade mower (think your granparents old push mower) that runs on two 12-volt batteries and charges from an ordinary transformer, it is quite compact and relatively light compared to other electron-swapping-powered (read:ballast) machines. Those of you who have found yourself drooling over those ads for the DR brush mower can keep on salivating. The Sunlawn will choke on anything more than a moist patch of average kentucky’s finest blue. Happily, it will chug along with quiet persistence on most of your favorite ¼ acre plots of willing fescue. Only gripe on my end is the pitifully small bag. If you want to keep your vermillion crop nice and clean during its haircut, you’ll be schlepping bags to the curb every few minutes. One of the best parts: The average YEARLY cost of powering one of these – 5 bucks. The EM-2 is available direct from Sunlawn for about $380.

This post should be read:

1. If you live in an area like we do, which is basically irrigated dessert
2. If you find your water bill insanely high
3. If you would rather sip mai-tais and watch your garden grow, rather than water it

If any or all of these apply to you, Zeba makes a line of soil amendment products to help you cut back on your watering, whatever your motivation. According to Zeba, “Quench” saves water by up to 50% in your gardens and container plants by absorbing water and releasing it when the plant root “asks for it”! That’s right, your plant says “hey Zeba, I’m thirsty”, and then Zeba says, “well, drink up my dear bromeliad, there’s plenty to go around.” Zeba acts like a sponge catching and releasing moisture, and it can hold hundreds of times its weight in water. Available in both “Singles” (with organic fertilizer option), or in larger containers for mixing right into the soil. There are also several different types geared towards home use, agricultural, nursery, etc. You fellow green homefixated types will appeciate that not only does Zeba save water, but it is biodegradable, non-toxic and pH neutral. More details at Zeba.com. Available starting at about $15 from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden and other retailers and etailers.

VitraStone offers Eco Friendly sinks and surfaces made from 70% - 85% recycled content such as recycled glass and fly ash blended with a proprietary mix of ceramic cement. They claim to be twice as strong as their concrete competitors (I am guessing they do a lot of weight lifting and outdoor activities where they are based in Colorado. . . . oh wait, I think they mean the product is twice as strong). With low embodied energy and no off-gassing, Vitrastone products will even help obtain LEED points in residential and commercial projects. Definitely Green goodness here. Easily customized to almost any shape and color. More details available at VitraStone.com

Last year I heard about Enviro-Logs and just had to give them a try. They are 100% Recycled and made from food grade waxed cardboard boxes. We decided to decorate the tree tonight and so I grabbed a couple of the logs to fire them up. The first bonus. . . super easy to light. As most of you no doubt know, the ability to start fires quickly and skillfully is the true sign of a real man. Now, even if you normally need an entire Sunday paper worth of kindling, you can crank up a fire in no time. Just take off the wrapping, put it under the log and light it up. The logs will even catch fire just by holding a flame to them briefly. With two logs, I was pleased to see a roaring fire immediately, and the logs really look like real wood when burning. The wrapper makes the logs easy and clean to transport and store. On top of all those benefits, they burn cleaner than wood and with more heat per pound. I am definitely sold on these and don’t think I will be going back to hunting down regular wood logs anytime soon. I got my box of Enviro-Logs at Home Depot, but they are also sold at other retailers including Whole Foods. They’re available online as well for about $30 for a box of 6 five pound logs at the Enviro-Log website.

Last Christmas my wife and I, and other vital family members, were almost killed at Grandma’s house. I know, I know, it is always Grandma who is supposed to get run over by a reindeer. Well, not this year. It seems that in all the holiday festivities, no one checked to make sure the chimney damper was was opened. As a result, carbon monoxide filled the room and some really nice black soot stained the white brick around the fireplace. Man, if we only had the Soot Eraser afterward. Never mind the carbon monoxide poisoning. . . Grandma said cleaning the fireplace was a nightmare! The Soot Eraser is billed as ideal for occasional smudges and for cleaning soot and smoke-covered bricks and walls. It is like the eraser you used in school, only it is 3″ x 6″. The Soot Eraser is made of vulcanized natural rubber so it is safe, non-toxic, and eco-friendly. The manufacturer, who I could not find online, also makes a liquid version which sounds like less fun to me. Consider this a public safety announcement to make sure your fireplace damper is open when you have a fire this winter! Available for about $10 at Mitchel’s Fireplace and Patio Store.

My wife loves candles. Anytime we have guests over and it is even close to dusk, she will run around the house lighting candles everywhere. I agree they look great, but I do not really like the threat of fire, or the carcinogenic byproducts many candles give off. I know, I am a party pooper. Thankfully, Philips, sees things my way and has a lineup of nifty LED “candles.” The Aurelle LED Candles consist of a frosted glass cover, light base, recharger and adaptor. The cover is available in four decorative shapes; round, triangle, square and tulip. I think the tulip one is pretty cool myself. The light even flickers for a true candle look. Each candle is reported to run for about 10 hours on a full charge. I found a set of four online for about $70 at Skymall of all places.
Update: My wife thinks the color of these is not convincing. I still think they are cool, but their glow is a little too yellow-ish to be fully convincing when they are in a clear or frosted votive. I am going to play around with putting them behind colored candle holders and I think that will do the trick.

I love it when my wife strips! I am referring of course to paint stripping. Not only paint stripping, but eco-friendly paint stripping at that. I refinished a door a while back and used some of the typical home improvement store “melt the flesh off your bones, carcinogenic, environmentally evil” paint stripper. After hours in a respirator and some googling of the main ingredients I vowed to find a safer alternative. Enter Removall products from Napier Environmental Technologies. My wife gave the stuff its first field test to remove a layer of paint from some vintage wood we have in our house. Application one was promising, but we did not put it on thick enough. We left a second very thick application on over night, and the stripper did a remarkable job. Oh, and the Removall did a good job removing the paint too! It is not as fast or as effective as the carcinogenic variety, but it is effective enough for me given the benefits it has: water-based clean-up, fully biodegradable, non-flammable, contains no TAPs or HAPs (Toxic / Hazardous Air Pollutants), low odor, will not burn skin, and my favorites, non-carcinogenic and non-toxic. The products are not cheap either, but when you factor in your health and that of the environment, I think it is well worth it. I just wished some of the major stores would carry it. I tracked mine down from a site call ProPaintStrip.com for about $50 for a one gallon size. I ordered the “220″ formula which is brush-able (some formulas are for spray application only).

Have I mentioned my refusal to use toxins to control weeds on our lawn? On the off chance I might become possessed and choose to lick our lawn, or that the toxins will seep into our water table, I refuse to use any weed killer or pesticides on our property. Being green is not easy sometimes, but there are resources to help. The Weed Hound, made by Hound Dog Tools, is a handy weed puller that lets you do your dirty work from a standing position. After crawling around on our lawn, cursing the weeds like a mad man, this looks like a brilliant design. Dave Pollard also has some helpful eco friendly tips for lawn and yard care on his site. Thanks to Greg for the tip and to TreeHugger and Sustainablog for their original link to Dave Pollard’s site. I just ordered my Weed Hound for $25 with free shipping from Hound Dog Tools online order site.

I knew when a nature loving, home improvement guru and friend was tempted to shoot some nasty woodpeckers after they poked holes into his custom log home, trouble was brewing. Thankfully a solution of black streamers seemed to scare the birds away. If that fails in the future, these bird balloons might do the trick. The 18″ balloons have mylar tails and “eyes” that mimic and exaggerate the glaring eyes and gaping mouth of a predator bird. Plus they look cool and come in nifty colors like black, white or yellow. Rotate colors for best results. They recommend four to eight balloons per acre. Let me see. . . at our house we would need 1/10th of one balloon. Why is this under “eco-friendly” you might ask? Mainly because showing birds scary balloons is much nicer than shooting them. If you have pesky birds, please scare them away gently rather than killing them. Available for about $8 each at Gemplers

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